Co-opting our way of life

“What I propose is a Free State Project, in which freedom-minded people of all stripes … establish residence in a small state and take over the state government,”

-- Jason Sorens, Founder,

Free State Movement

With these words, written in 2001, Jason Sorens announced his intention to politically invade New Hampshire by encouraging as many as 20,000 of the like-minded to come here.

Even though Sorens has since disavowed his desire to “take over the state government” his words have repeatedly come back to haunt him and his followers — as they should.

Last week, State Rep. Cynthia Chase, D-Cheshire Dist. 8, called Free Staters the “single biggest threat the state is facing today” while inviting them to pack their bags and leave. She went on to write that one way to force them out would be for the Legislature to “pass measures that will restrict the ‘freedoms’ that they think they will find here. Another is to shine the bright light of publicity on who they are and why they are coming.”

Clearly, Chase chose some inopportune words in calling for anyone’s freedoms to be restricted, but the rest of her comments (http://tinyurl.com/Leave-NH) aptly reflect what many Granite Staters have been quietly saying for more than a decade.

Granite Staters — -left, right and center — value their independence. They instinctively resent the notion that anyone should or could turn New Hampshire into a one-party dynasty like Massachusetts. In refusing one party rule, New Hampshire has thrived on the political push and pull which has held sway for decades — near or at the top in education, public safety, health, and quality of life.

Do we have problems? Sure. Has the Legislature gone overboard at times — both to the left and to right? Absolutely. But that is democracy. Unfortunately, the Free State Movement came to New Hampshire with the stated intent of taking over our way of life — a way of life the vast majority of us believe is pretty darn good.

And even though Sorens made his intentions clear from the get-go, the Free State Movement has gone about its work in a surreptitious manner.

Free Staters are more libertarian then they are conservative or Republican. Yet, their chosen road to Concord and legislative chambers has been through the Republican Party, not the existing Libertarian movement. This allowed Free Staters to often run for office without have to clearly state their Sorens-ian intentions of political domination. It also wrongly has brought brand-named conservatives to their defense.

As Chase’s comments went viral last week, she unwittingly drew criticism from the likes of conservative deity Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart.com, rapidly becoming the right-wing’s go-to website. Both came to the defense of the Free State Movement, not understanding the “Et tu, Brute” nature of the organization which stabbed true Granite State conservatives and Republicans in the back on Nov. 6.

Whether voters send the Free State Movement packing is yet to be seen. And we doubt there is much if any legislative substance to Chase’s threat. But we do urge the state Republican Party to take a long, hard look at distinguishing itself and its conservative values from the libertarian ways of the Free Staters even if that leads to a viable third party. At least then we will have a more clear idea of who and what we are voting come Election Day.